[TenTec] Omni VI+ classic

[Rob Atkinson, K5UJ]

<<<While its always nice to hear another Omni VI on the air whose owner 
loves it, I've never quite understood why they didn't outsell everything 
made by the import radio companies.>>>

Various reasons which for the most part have to do with what people are 
looking for in a product.  For example, Ten Tec fans seem to be obsessed 
with receiver specifications.  Believe it or not, not everyone is.   Not 
everyone does the kind of operating where a few db of BDR matters.  Not 
everyone is absolutely madly in love with cw.  (I know someone who says cw 
stands for continuous work.)  One of the things I always liked about the 
Omni VI was the front panel layout--very clean with mostly the controls I 
want to use.  Some hams want lots of buttons and doodads.   Compared to the 
JA gear of the day such as the TS850 with its vacuum fluorescent display, 
the Omni VI had a sort of homemade kit look with its LEDs, and light coming 
through around the front panel buttons.  You may think it's sacrilege and 
stupid but you may as well accept the fact that to some, look and feel and 
build quality are more important than IPO or whatever its called.  The Omni 
when it was new listed for around $2.7 K if I remember correctly.  For that 
kind of dough, some people felt like they deserved a few things like a 
tuning knob that didn't scrape the front panel and had a flywheel.  Also, 
while fantastic on cw, it did not have the greatest SSB audio.   Then there 
was the deal where because they ended their dealer network, if you wanted a 
Ten Tec, you had to order one and get it shipped.  Some hams want to see a 
rig in a store and have an eyeball qso with it before buying.   But anyway, 
fortunate is the ham who realizes he can have it both ways by simply getting 
an Omni VI for cw, and a Kenwood 870 for phone. It is a great time to be a 
ham.  But to get back to the topic, all these rig disputes...this v. that 
etc., boil down to arguments over what hams see as priorities, and a lot of 
that has to do with what kind of operating they are doing.  You may as well 
argue about cw contesting v. SSB ragchewing.  To each his own.

Rob Atkinson
K5UJ

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